In the newsroom, we took to calling it the election from hell.

The problem was simple: too many candidates. Candidates with no money. Candidates who would jump off a ferry dock to get in the paper one more time.

It's the first time I've ever seen Adele Ferguson look tired, and she was learning to handle candidates when I was learning to handle the playground bully.

There were moments in the late and unlamented primary, however, when the bully and the candidate were hard to distinguish.

One lesser-known candidate for a lesser-known state office hollered at me, then hollered at my voice mail, then sent me an indignant letter, after I explained that we wouldn't be endorsing in partisan primaries, so why waste everybody's time on a meeting before the primary.

A judicial candidate sentenced me to a life of irresponsibility when I said we wouldn't be endorsing in those races, either.

I'm not opposed to endorsing judges, but I get too frustrated to do it sometimes. I honestly like to think I've done a respectable amount of research when I write that one candidate seems to stand above the others, but you can't research judicial candidates by asking them questions. Their code of ethics doesn't allow them to answer any of the questions that matter.

If I know for a fact, from observation, that a judicial candidate has done a good job in the past, or is sharp as a tack, or has a history of putting law-abiding citizens ahead of criminals, then that observation might be of some value to a reader seeking insights. But an hour across the desk from a judicial candidate will give me just enough information to make a fool of myself if I use it as the basis for a written opinion.

The reasoning is different in partisan primaries.

I've lived in more one-party states than two-party states. Two-party states like this one get a little messy sometimes, but they beat one-party states where the likely primary winner is picked in a back room, the primary decides it, and the general election is a formality.

So let the parties thin the forest in vigorous, openly-fought primaries, I reason, and let editors of independent newspapers count their blessings and keep their counsel. We can always spout off before the general, when there's less to spout about and more time to do it thoughtfully.

My other rule of thumb about endorsement editorials is that when I do them, I put them off until the last minute. No, I'm not shy about expressing my opinion. But I'm shy about being quoted in campaign literature.

If you give them enough time to get to the printers, they'll quote you. They always quote the part that says "Smith is the only candidate who's smart enough to do the job" and leave out the part that says, "but keep an eye on Smith. He was a real chameleon in the Legislature, and he only delivered on his promises when somebody was breathing right down his neck."

Readers, bless them, have some rules of their own about endorsement editorials.

Some people ignore them on principle. ("No newspaper's gonna tell me how to vote!") Some people use them to help make a decision, and a few base their decision entirely on the editorial -- though not always in the way the writer intended.

Years ago, after I had written a glowing endorsement of a young congressional candidate, a reader called to thank me for mentioning that the candidate was in his 30s. She had missed that point up until then, and she said nobody that young ought to be in Congress.

At my last job, in anything-goes South Florida, a fellow cornered me at a civic function and asked if I'd let him in on that year's choices early. He said he knew a bookie who was taking election bets, and he wanted to wager against anyone I backed.

A couple weeks later, a mayoral candidate I endorsed won by 14 votes. I stopped by her victory party on my way home late that night, and when she spotted me she started laughing. "If you're here to claim credit for those 14 votes," she said, "get in line. The whole town's been here ahead of you."

Now, why can't they make more candidates like that?

***

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